Host FAQ

• What is a Host?

• What is a Campus?

• What is a Listener?

• Who is the ideal Host?

• What exactly do Hosts do?

• How do I become a Host?

• Are there different types of Hosts?

• Can I refer a Host?

• Can a Campus have multiple Hosts?

• How much can my community earn?

• What happens to the data from my Campus?

• Will my audience members' contact info be shared with anyone?

• Who is responsible for moderating the content in a Campus?

• What kind of support does STAANCE provide Hosts?

• Where is STAANCE based?

• When was STAANCE founded?

• Can I offer rewards to my members?

• What do I need to do to remain a Host?

• As a Host, can I sign-up Listeners in my Campus?

What is a Host?

A host is an individual or organization with a highly engaged blog or social media audience who wants a new and exciting medium to expand that platform, drive engagement, and unleash a new, highly-lucrative, ad-free, monetization channel.

Who is the ideal Host?

The ideal host currently has a highly engaged audience organized around a lifestyle interest like entertainment, fashion, tech, automobiles, travel, pets, sports, etc. It is not sufficient to simply have a large audience. The ideal audience is one that goes beyond mere likes. The ideal audience has real conversations around your content. While there are exceptions, this typically means that the ideal host has a blog, video channel, or other online experience in addition to the traditional social media presence

What exactly do Hosts do?

As a host, you would continue creating the same content you do today on your blog, channel, etc. You'll simply include material in your posts that drives conversations on your STAANCE Campus. For example, a fashion host could embed conversation starters in an article about a new Hermes bag like "The Birkin is no longer the must-have bag it once was." Or a tech host could close out an article on the iPhone with "When it comes to screens, there is no such thing as too big." These assertions are excellent conversation starters that drive engagement and keep your Campus buzzing with activity. Once on Campus, your users will be able to create their own Staances driving even more engagement and conversations. In fact, even for the most prolific and active Hosts, Campus members still create over 99% of the posts that drive conversations. 

How do I become a Host?

Hosts are by invite only. If you believe that you meet the criteria for hosting your community on our platform, tell us about yourself and request an invite below.

Are there different types of Hosts?

Hosts can be Founding Hosts or Member Hosts. If we launch a new Campus built around your audience and their conversations, you'll be the Founding Host. Founding hosts are typically individuals or organizations with an existing audience of 500k or more. As a founding host, you'll be able to invite other hosts to participate on your Campus. All hosts, whether founding or member hosts, will earn based on their proportionate contribution to a Campus.

Can I refer a Host?

Yes, you may refer new, qualified hosts to the STAANCE platform. Hosts can be Founding Hosts or Member Hosts. If we launch a new Campus built around your audience and their conversations, you'll be the Founding Host. Founding hosts are typically individuals or organizations with an existing audience of 500k or more. As a founding host, you'll be able to invite other hosts to participate on your Campus and receive a generous referral bonus if they're accepted.

Can a Campus have multiple Hosts?

Yes. In fact, most Campuses are more active and interesting with multiple hosts and audiences with similar interests. All hosts, whether founding or member hosts, will earn based on their proportionate contribution to a Campus. Contribution is measured based on points generated via engagement with your content in a Campus. You'll also receive a percentage of activity points for any user who joined their first Campus via your blog, website, podcast, etc. Details around our formula are available to all hosts as part of your agreement, so you'll always know what you'll earn, and how.

How much can my Campus earn?

A lot. A Campus with a consistent 5K DAU (Daily Active Users) in the United States can earn up to $1.6 million for its hosts in a year. The funds come from Listener licenses acquired by people-first organizations that share our belief that the successful organizations of the future are those that listen to their customers and audiences. And when it comes to learning directly from customers and audience, no one has built an experience and technology more capable than ours to structure and quantify opinions, parse them, and expose realtime insights using machine-aided models, advanced NLP, and AI technology. It is also worth noting that we allocate a percentage of revenues to causes that serve a related public good chosen by the hosts in a Campus. Hosts are also encouraged to seek other ways to give back to their communities. As a platform grounded in transparency, we reveal all Listeners in a Campus to hosts so that you have full visibility.

What happens to the data from my Campus?

Raw data from a Campus never leaves the STAANCE platform. Private and identifiable data about your audience members aren't revealed to Listeners. Privacy and trust mean everything to us and the loss of either will materially undermine our ability to deliver on our mission. Therefore, we are transparent in all we do, and take seriously the trust of our hosts and members. Listeners learn from the insights that our analysis engines expose. As Campus members Listeners also have access to public content on the app as any other user does. Listeners can also engage users with content, chat, conversations just like any other member.

Will my audience members' contact info be shared with anyone?

No, we do not reveal private contact info of our members to Listeners.

Who is responsible for moderating the content in a Campus?

A Campus is the responsibility of it's hosts. Hosts will dictate the tone and nature of conversations in a Campus. The STAANCE Platform provides technology tools to protect a Campus from unwanted / inappropriate content. These tools are configurable to set the appropriate level of intervention. Our moderation tools come with well-tested defaults and can be configured to parse and detect things like nudity and profanity in photos, profanity (even with misspellings) in text, hate speech, and more, so you decide the tone you want to set.

What kind of support does STAANCE provide Hosts?

All hosts have email and phone access to a support person at STAANCE who is available to assist you with everything from content and moderation best practices, support, and more. STAANCE also provides a content bank from where Hosts can easily discover trending topics to drive engagement. There are few challenges you'll encounter that we haven't seen before. STAANCE is your partner and we are there with you every step of the way. 

Where is STAANCE based?

STAANCE was founded in San Francisco, California, in the SOMA neighborhood where we continue to work (and play).

When was STAANCE founded?

STAANCE was founded in 2013 in realization of the fact that while virtually everyone is speaking on the internet, very few are actually being heard. We identified three primary reasons why this is the case: 

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1. Noise - Internet threads have a very poor signal to noise ratio making it difficult finding what's valuable.

2. Lack of Structure - A lack of content structure made it difficult to reliably make sense of what's being said.

3. Fragmentation: Conversations are happening in disparate locations.

We then set out to build a platform that solved all three issues, so that even casual conversations can now help improve our day-to-day experiences. As you now see, hosted Campuses are the solution to problem #3, Fragmentation.

Can I offer rewards to my Campus members?

Yes, each Campus has it's own economy. Our economy is fun because every action a user performs earns or spends points creating adding to a uniquely interesting experience. As a host, you can therefore easily create giveaways, promos, and other fun games built on your economy where winners can simply exchange points for rewards as desired.

What do I need to do to remain a Host?

We consider all hosts to be valuable partners and we will do everything reasonable to help each host succeed. Loss of hosting privileges will generally only occur after repeated, uncorrected violations of your hosting agreement, fraudulent activity, or other abusive behavior in violation of our host or community terms of use.

As a Host, can I sign-up Listeners in my Campus?

Yes, as a host, you are free to signup Listeners to your Campus. In addition to standard earnings, you'll receive a generous bonus for each Listener you sign.